The best and worst airports of 2023, according to AirHelp

• AirHelp, the world's largest air passenger rights organisation, publishes the annual AirHelp Score, which ranks airports and airlines

• The best airports in Europe are located in Spain, Finland and Poland

• Three of the worst 20 ranked global airports are located in the United Kingdom

London – 5th December 2023 – AirHelp, the world's largest air passenger rights organisation, has today released the ratings of all airports and airlines around the world in its annual comprehensive AirHelp Score. European airports in particular fared very poorly in this year’s ranking: of the 194 airports assessed, only nine airports in Europe made it into the top 50 in this year’s ranking, with London City emerging as the first UK airport, in 58th place.

Europe's best airport is in Spain

For the AirHelp Score, airports were evaluated in the categories of Punctuality, Customer Opinions, and Food & Shops. With an overall score of 8.04 points, Spain’s Bilbao Airport fares in 21st place, making it Europe's best airport in 2023. The continent’s second best ranking goes to Helsinki Vantaa Airport in Finland with 8.01 points, collecting 8’s across the board when looking at on-time performance, customer opinions and food & shops. Gdańsk Lech Wałęsa Airport in Poland comes in at third place in Europe with 8.00 points, rising from 75th in 2022 to 28th place in the global ranking this year.

The fourth-best airport in Europe with a score of 7.98 points, and a new entry for 2023, is Lennart Meri Tallinn Airport in Estonia, closely followed by Dortmund Airport in Germany in fifth place and 41st overall, with 7.89 points. Last year’s leading European airport was Spain's Madrid-Barajas Airport, which has dropped by 36 positions in the global ranking from 12th to 48th place this year.

UK airports have significant room for improvement

Both across Europe and the overall global ranking, British airports performed poorly again this year. With an overall score of 6.48 points, London Gatwick is Europe's second-worst airport and also the third-worst in the world. This is a result of the airport scoring exceptionally low when looking at flight punctuality, with only 5.5 points. Just ahead in the ranking are Manchester Airport and Bristol Airport at 183rd (6.75 points) and 180th (6.81 points) respectively. London Heathrow comes in at 163rd place with a score of 6.99, dropping by 51 positions since 2022. 

Brazilian airports in second and fourth position

Looking at the global rankings reveals that Muscat International Airport in Oman is in first place as the world’s leading airport, with 8.54 points. Whilst this airport is a new entry for 2023, it scored an average of 8.7 points across the categories of punctuality, customer opinions and food & shops. Recife/Guararapes–Gilberto Freyre International Airport in Brazil remains in second place this year with an overall score of 8.49, closely followed by South Africa’s Cape Town International Airport with 8.48 points.

A second Brazilian airport, Brasília–Presidente Juscelino Kubitschek International Airport, is in fourth place with 8.43 points and scored an impressive 8.6 points for flight punctuality. Finally, Doha Hamad International Airport in Qatar has risen by 32 positions this year to come in 5th place in the global ranking with 8.41 points.

Tomasz Pawliszyn, CEO of AirHelp commented: "Our goal at AirHelp is not only to educate passengers about their rights and help them enforce them in the event of flight disruptions, but also ensure they have an all-round satisfying flight experience. Over the past 10 years, we have helped 2 million passengers get paid compensation for delayed or cancelled flights and in instances of denied boarding, while also collecting these never-seen-before statistics on airlines and airports. 

“The AirHelp Score uses data to rate airlines and airports across several factors, looking beyond only punctuality or customer feedback. This is because we know that passengers care about different things when they fly and we want the results of the AirHelp Score to reflect which airlines and airports offer the best overall passenger experience.” 

Find out more about AirHelp’s Best Airport Rankings Worldwide here. 

About the AirHelp Score

The AirHelp Score is a ranking of the best and worst airlines and airports in the world. AirHelp has been publishing the AirHelp Score since 2015 (with a break during the pandemic) to help passengers better plan their flights. The Score allows passengers to see what treatment they can expect from airlines and airports based on data. To calculate the AirHelp Score, multiple data sources and factors are combined to give passengers a comprehensive picture of how an airline or airport is performing. The airline score is based on three factors: on-time performance, customer opinions and complaint handling. These are weighted equally. The rating of airports is also based on three factors: punctuality, customer opinions, and food and business. Here, punctuality is the biggest factor at 60 percent. To determine the results, data from January 1 to September 30 was analysed and passengers were asked about their most recently used airlines and airports.

About AirHelp

AirHelp is the world’s largest air passenger rights organisation. Since its founding in 2013, the company has helped travellers enforce compensation for delayed or cancelled flights, as well as in the event of denied boarding. In addition, AirHelp takes legal and political action to strengthen the rights of air passengers further worldwide. More information about AirHelp can be found at: https://www.airhelp.com/en-gb/